Bloating & fullness

Many people with a bloated belly do not have more gas than others — it is just distributed differently and felt more strongly. Where exactly the forward push snags and how sensitive the wall is decides more than what was on the plate.

Chewing well, fewer fizzy drinks and less gum reduce swallowed air.

A short food diary often shows what bloats most.

Walks and regular bowel movements noticeably ease the belly.

New, persistent bloating with weight loss or blood should be assessed.

Giardia causes persistent bloating with burping — while leaving inflammation markers and calprotectin normal.

Lightly crush a teaspoon of the seeds, pour over hot water, cover and steep for ten minutes.

Pour hot water over a teaspoon of dried leaves, cover and steep for ten minutes, drink after eating.

Fermenting, foul-smelling wind with fatty, shiny stool and weight loss that began after a holiday or after spring water treats well — provided it is looked for.

Simeticone breaks up the gas bubbles in the gut — it removes no gas, it makes it easier to move along, and it works within hours or not at all. It changes nothing about why the gas forms. That is decided further up: sugars that are not absorbed (lactose, fructose, sorbitol), pulses, or an abnormal colonisation. Peppermint oil in gastro-resistant capsules has been studied for cramping complaints; it acts on the muscle, not on the gas.

The gut produces about 0.5 to 1.5 litres of gas a day, and passing wind ten to twenty times a day counts as normal — the range is wider than most assume. Around ninety per cent of the gas arises in the colon during breakdown by bacteria, the rest is swallowed air. A withdrawal trial shows within two to four weeks whether a particular sugar is involved. After a change of diet the flora needs two to four weeks for gas production to settle.

Most of the air in the stomach is swallowed while eating, not produced there. Eat more slowly, do not talk while eating, no fizzy drinks, no straws.

Eating fast, fizzy drinks and gum bring air into the belly.

Legumes, cabbage and lots of fibre are fermented in the gut.

Lactose, fructose or irritable bowel are common identifiable causes (own dossiers).

With weight loss, blood in stool or persistent pain → get assessed.

The most important treatable cause behind years of bloating. The value only holds while gluten is still being eaten.

Separates a sensitive bowel from a true inflammation. A normal value often saves the endoscopy.

An iron shortage together with bloating speaks for uptake in the bowel being disturbed — then the search goes on rather than only changing the diet.

The single most important hint of worms in the blood. They are raised with worms that travel through tissue — not with giardia, threadworms and amoebae, which stay in the bowel. A normal value therefore rules nothing out.

Soluble fibres like psyllium and oats bind water and make the stool supple. Wheat bran and a lot of raw vegetables, by contrast, increase bloating and pain in a sensitive gut — this distinction explains most of the failures.

Fibre without water makes the stool harder instead of softer. The two belong together, and the effect only sets in after some days.

Draws water into the bowel and therefore works with a sluggish stool. The belly shows the upper limit: if the stool gets too loose, the dose at once was too high.

Yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut and the like bring living cultures with them. Many tolerate them well; with a strongly bloated belly they can also do the opposite in the first weeks.

One of the best-studied plant remedies for irritable bowel complaints. The enteric coating is decisive — without it the oil arrives in the stomach and causes heartburn instead of calm in the gut.

With a proven enzyme deficiency they are the treatment. Without one no benefit is shown — a healthy pancreas delivers many times what a capsule holds.

Effective when deficient; effects on sleep and stress plausible but moderate. Too much causes loose stool.

This hormone relaxes smooth muscle — including that of the gut. This is why bloating and constipation are more common in the second half of the cycle and in pregnancy. Not a coincidence and not an intolerance.

Between meals a cleaning wave pushes the contents onward; this hormone sets it off. It needs gaps of three to four hours — constant snacking interrupts it, and gas stays put.

An underactive thyroid slows the whole gut. Bloating with constipation, tiredness and feeling cold together is a good reason to measure the value once.

The elimination phase is designed for 2–6 weeks, then groups are reintroduced one by one. Held strictly for longer, gut diversity drops.

Part of the air in the belly is swallowed. Eating more slowly and fewer fizzy drinks measurably changes this — for some within days.

Fennel, anise and caraway are the traditional trio against fermentation — as tea after the meal.

It speeds up stomach emptying, which can shorten the fullness after a meal.

Relaxes the smooth muscle — helpful with cramps, but can worsen heartburn.

Traditionally used as a digestive tea, often with caraway and fennel.

The bitter compounds stimulate bile and digestive juices — the classic bitter tea.

The traditional clockwise belly massage, diluted in a carrier oil.

Caraway counts as the strongest of the three wind oils and is dosed very sparingly.

The classic point for fullness and sluggish digestion.

Mandarin peel counts in TCM as the remedy for stuck qi in the belly.

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